Archive for the ‘TV’ Category

It’s been a long time hasn’t it? I’m going to try my best to give a little update on everything that’s happened in the last month, so expect this post to be more rambling and incoherent than usual.

In terms of music, I’ve been digging into my old CD cases and uncovering some lost gems. CDs (yes, CDs) that I rocked on the regular in high school have been getting fresh spins in my car. In other words, I’m partying like it’s 1999. So what have I been rocking? Here’s a small list: Blink 182’s Cheshire Cat, both Bigwig records, Good Riddance, Operation Ivy, Poison the Well’s Opposite of December (which does NOT hold up over time), Past Mistakes, Strung Out’s Twisted by Design, DeLaHoya, The Break, No Use for a Name’s Making Friends, Digger’s Powerbait, and some other punk rock classics that escape me at the moment.

As far as TV goes, Briks and I have been suffering through AMC’s The Killing each Sunday night. God what an awful show. The only reason we keep watching is the fact that we’ve invested so much time in the show already and it’s a murder mystery, which we’re suckers for no matter how poorly executed. In case you haven’t been watching, I’ll give you a quick run down of what the show’s all about. Think of all the cop cliche’s you have ever heard. Add to that cliche’s about Seattle’s weather (it’s constantly pouring down rain). And finish it off with a god awful storyline about a mayor’s race we could give a shit less about. Oh, and a local high school girl was killed and we still don’t know who did it.

Ok, books time. I just made an Amazon order because I broke my cell phone case the other day. I’m unaware of any other venue that sells HTC Android cases as cheap as Amazon does. $5 cell phone case? Yeah, I’ll take it. So in addition to a couple really cheap cases, I ordered a couple books I’ve had my eye on. I will be receiving Adapt: Why Success Always Starts With Failure by economist Tim Harford. Tim is known in economics circles as one of the few economists who can write really well. Another economist who knows a thing or two about writing is the great Walter Williams. Walter recently came out with two books. One was an autobiography that eventually I’ll read and the other is a economics book on race and discrimination. I ordered Race and Economics: How Much Can Be Blamed on Discrimination? There are few economists better than Walter Williams, and there are no economists better than Walter on issues of race.

What about libertarianism? Well, is there a better time in history to be a libertarian than right now? Obama has solidified George W. Bush’s third term with more undeclared, unconstitutional (and hardly covert) wars, more civil rights busting surveillance state controls, an official American citizen assassination list, and more executive branch secrecy. Don’t believe me? Just read the news. Or Glenn Greenwald. You’d have to be the most hardcore partisan loyalist to refuse to admit that the two parties are actually one party. And yes, there are many of you out there.

Let’s get to a little home life. I’ve had the smartest friend I’ve ever had and literally the first friend I ever had Mike visit me at the beginning and the end of his trip to Colorado. He flew in for a friend’s wedding held coincidentally at the Boettcher mansion on top of Lookout, and ended up hanging out and staying with us a couple of days. What a great surprise! There is no one on earth I can more nerdy with than Mike. I’ll miss that when he’s gone.

Economics? I guess I sort of covered that in my books section. But I’ll say this as well. Go read Mises.org and learn something.

And now to granddaddy of them all: cycling. I don’t want to get into all the gory details on this post but I will give the Cliff’s Notes version. After taking 6 full weeks off the bike to rest and rehab my knee, I started testing my knee out early this month with a few short, easy rides. After a couple of weeks of testing and increasing my volume, we decided to start getting me training again. So last week I met with my coach and outlined my comeback plan for the end of the season. I officially started training 2 weeks ago and will race again at the end of June up in Wyoming at the Dead Dog stage race. I obviously won’t be fit by then but it will be great to get back in the ol’ saddle and race a bit. By the time August rolls around, I should be fit again and ready to do well at the AFA state road race championship, Rist Canyon race, and finally the Steamboat Springs stage race. Definitely looking forward to those.

In other bike news, thanks to all my stretching, PT, and chiropractic care, I am tons more flexible now with miles of new range of motion. Therefore, I feel extremely comfortable and loose on my bike. So George and I decided to stretch me out a cm and drop me down 1.5 cm’s. It feels soooo good. But I’m still slow at the moment, which is frustrating. I feel like a million bucks, but I can’t push 200 watts without huffing and puffing.

I’d like to end with a public mid-year resolution to get back into regular blogging again. I’ve been so distracted with trying to get my cycling back in order that I’ve neglected this outlet. I had to put it on hold while I was mentally broken because of my knee. I’m back now though. And I’m ready to start training and writing regularly again. Wish me luck.

April is perhaps the greatest month for professional cycling outside of July. This coming Sunday is a big reason for that. The Tour of Flanders is my favorite race of the year by a long shot. It has all the passion, aggression, and luck of any one day race, but what separates Flanders are the cobbles and 20% grades. There is almost nothing more enjoyable than seeing your favorite hard men wincing with pain as they try to turn their gears over — with a cadence of around 42 — on a 22% cobbled climb. It’s pure magic.

With that in mind, I’m going to attempt to make some predictions about Sunday’s race:

First and very obvious prediction – Cancellara is the man to beat. ‘Nuff said.Second: Phillipe Gilbert is my runner up.Third: Tom Boonen will not be the clear cut second best. I predict he won’t even finish in this year’s top 10. Bold? Yes, I know.Fourth: Peter Sagan is my darkhorse pick for a solid top 5 finish.Fifth: Only 1 Garmin rider will crack the top 10 (and I’m not even sure about that).Sixth: Pippo, several riders from BMC, and Stuey O’Grady will animate the race. Pippo because he’s sick and tired of being called a wheel sucker, BMC because they are super strong this year, and Stuey because he will be let off his leash due to Cancellara’s dominance.

Will this year’s Ronde feature another long escape? I hope not. The only person capable of that is Cancellara, and as much as I love the guy, I want the last 10 K’s to be a war among several hard men. I want to see men with dirty faces on the verge of tears riding side by side, looking one another over, assessing the damage they’ve done. Who looks like they want to quit? Who looks determined? Who looks willing to die for this win? With less than 10K’s to go, the rider with the biggest heart will attack in desperation. Not because they think they are the strongest, but because they are daring the others to follow. Calling their bluff. Who will have the biggest heart on Sunday?

You know those t-shirts nerds wear that say, “No I won’t fix your computer.” Well, let this blog serve as my virtual t-shirt that says, “No, I won’t blog for you.” After blogging for other people in several different capacities for the last few years, I’m taking my ball and going home – into my own world of frivolous, inconsequential musings that will entertain no one but myself.

I plan to talk about economics, libertarianism, cycling, my training, my racing, good music, good TV, and whatever else I feel like typing. Some of it might be interesting to you. Some of it won’t. I think my material covers such a broad spectrum that at least one post a year will catch your fancy. And that’s my goal. One million posts for me, one post for you.